FAIL

I failed a student today. He got 20 points out of 100 on an oral exam on the role that sports played within the political and cultural context of the 1960s. My boss, a Danish woman, and I listened painfully, and had to be merciless. Of the 9 exams, there was the 20, two 50s (that counts as passing at the school), a 57, 63, 68 and 75.

Tomorrow I may decide to file a lawsuit against the German Social Security. My chances of winning are quite small but it could be an interesting experience, at least that’s how my friend, the former tax lawyer turned tax judge thinks and he’s been with me through most of this whole thing. We’re meeting for lunch tomorrow to discuss my options.

I also have a meeting to get new health insurance tomorrow. The past years I’ve been 60euros/month for a basic service from England. Now I will pay twice that but have German health insurance, which means the following:

my co-pay is 10 euros and that’s for every 3 months. If I have to go back to the doctor’s the next week, I don’t have to pay again.

basically everything is covered, including 80% of teeth and glasses (for basic ones which I would need to upgrade)

It sounds very good to me, even if it’s 60 euros/month more. I’ll have to squeeze it into my budget somehow, which looks something like this:

rent 220

utilities 40

phone/internet 20

cell phone 30

insurance 125

social security 230

food 200

miscellaneous 150

transportation 35

————–

1050 euros

Let’s make it 1200 to be safe. There are other costs that come, like a big night out drinking, getting shirts tailored, dates with franziska, and who knows…

1200 euros/month means 14,400 euros/year. Everything above that is for savings and travel and taxes. I will save 2500 euros this year, I’m proud of that. It’s not easy to save money, ya know?

All right, just wanted to give ya’ll an update, I’m going to work on some corrections on the first two chapters of Newropean, I’m listening to Howard Stern now and am chillin…